Out of a penalty only for some keywords?

[Josuah]

Hey there,

In the last Google dance I suffered a penalty for the home page of my site and lost all keywords I ranked for that page (but not internal ones).

We solve the probable cause and after some weeks we have recovered the ranking for some keywords but not all; so apparently the home page is still under the penalty but out of it only for some keywords.

Do you think that could be a temporary situation before being completely out of the penalty or we should assume that is permanent and take actions like a reinclusion request?

Thanks.

[tedster]

It's possible that the other query terms will come back gradually - but a reconsideration request doesn't hurt you and it might help - especially when you've corrected whatever guideline violations you found.

[Josuah]

OK thanks Tedster.

[gouri]

It's possible that the other query terms will come back gradually - but a reconsideration request doesn't hurt you and it might help - especially when you've corrected whatever guideline violations you found.

I think Tedster answers this question but I was hoping to ask: If you are under a penalty and you have recovered from the penalty for some terms but not all of them, can you completely recover from the penalty for all the terms without filing a reconsideration request or do you have to file one?

[Whitey]

It's possible that the other query terms will come back gradually

I'd second this question. Specifically "possible" versus probable. Or does it depend , and how long does it take ?

We are observing a site recovering from a penalty approximately 3 months ago. Some pages receiving specific link terms are actually dropping in the SERP's. So newly linked pages appear to be sensitive. Other occassional pages with some old links are holding up and ranking well.

[tedster]

From what I've seen, the style of recovery depends on the core causes for the penalty.

When the penalty is for some kind of overt attempt at manipulation (rather than an innocent oversight of some kind) it is common for the penalty to be removed in steps, sometimes over a few months -- and still subject to the regular jostling of algo tweaks along the way.

[Josuah]

That make sense, because of course is not the same a penalty after trying to trick Google or just an involuntary mistake.

I have recently lost one query term that I had recovered after the penalty, back step.. we'll see.

[gouri]

Would putting a sitewide link to the homepage be seen as overt manipulation or an accident?

This has affected several keywords.

I don't think Google likes this but I don't know how they view it.

[tedster]

Having a sitewide Home link in the banner area or main menu is a very common practice. But adding another sitewide Home link later on, especially using keyword anchor text, is more likely to be seen as an attempt at manipulation in my opinion.